According to their web site, today the New Mexico Senate passed SB 377 by a vote of 28 For to 10 Opposed. SB 377 proposes to stay on Daylight Savings Time, with an effective date of July 1, 2015. The intent of this bill would be to maintain Daylight Saving Time continuously.
As we’ve noted many times here at Time Zone Report, Year-Round DST prohibited, since it is against the federal statutes relating to Daylight Saving Time.
In an Email exchange with NM Senator Cliff Pirtle, the bill’s sponsor, he wrote:
My bill aims to request the USDOT to move NM into the central time zone and then exempt ourselves from DST
Okay… except that there is a section of his bill that says after the US DOT approves the transfer to the Central Time Zone:
The uniform time within the state of New Mexico shall be known as mountain daylight savings time
That would be like saying we’re going to eliminate taxes, but still take your money, we’re just going to call it “a donation” now. I don’t think this is going to make the proposal any more palatable to the US Department of Transportation.